Shot-by-shot video recreation of Chaplin’s Modern Times made by commissioning short clips from online workers on labor platforms Fiverr.com and Amazon Mechanical Turk
87’
Produced with the support of LACMA’s Art + Technology Lab

Postmodern Times (2016–17) is a shot-by-shot recreation of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times. I commissioned online workers on the digital platform Fiverr.com to recreate short clips from the film, which are interspersed with clips from the original film. Each clip was produced by different workers, resulting in a fragmented and chaotic work that reflects the conditions of digital labor itself. Postmodern Times also features a score that weaves together various interpretations of the original soundtrack, including a generic presentation of the MIDI data, passionate interpretations of the original score performed by musicians on Fiverr.com, and traces of the original score and foley sounds to connect the sound back to the original score. The transformative remix produces a chaotic soundtrack that splinters into digital glitches, only to reassemble around key leitmotifs present in the original score, which itself is representative of the conditions of the work’s creation.

3-channel HD Video made from photographs and screenshots captured every 15 minutes by custom Objective-C software and daily reflective texts from a one-year long durational performance
Channels 1 and 2: 6’50”; channel 3: 47’50”
Produced with the support of the LACMA Art + Technology Lab

In 2016, I began an exploration of how our knowledge economy impacts my life and identity on a personal scale, using myself as a case study to expose the various hidden forms of labor that cohere under the rubric of the Artist. Like many of my peers, much of my work as an artist revolves around emailing, liaising, corresponding, and managing: the maintenance of my art practice has necessarily come to define my practice.

Quantified Self Portrait (One Year Performance) (2016–17) uses the self-tracking technology of the Quantified Self movement, a trend in the wellness industry that aspires to self-knowledge through tracking one’s personal data. I programmed my computer and iPhone to capture screenshots and images every fifteen minutes for one year—a technique used to monitor freelance labor—and tracked my mental, physical, and emotional states with a Fitbit and journal. Quantified Self Portrait (One Year Performance) is a three-channel video that documents this process. Instead of pursuing wellness and perfection, Quantified Self Portrait (One Year Performance) reveals my position as a microcosm of a pathologically overworked and increasingly quantified society.

Yearlong sound installation generated by custom Java software from Fitbit and email data collected during a 366-day performance, broadcasting Mandiberg’s heartbeats
Dimensions variable
Produced with the support of the LACMA Art + Technology Lab

Quantified Self Portrait (Rhythms) is a yearlong sound installation that pairs the sound of my heartbeat with the sound of my email alerts as I sent and received them.

Workflow includes a series of new video and installation works, and explores ways in which the self can be measured and performed through the use of technology. Several pieces that are currently on view at LACMA in Michael Mandiberg: Workflow are included in this exhibition: Quantified Self Portrait (One Year Performance) (2016–17), Quantified Self Portrait (Rhythms) (2016–17), and Postmodern Times (2016–17). New Work also features View from the Window at Work (2016), an installation created using the digital labor platform Amazon Mechanical Turk, in which I commissioned 220 freelancers to take a horizontal photo out of the window in the room in which they work. The exhibitions closes on New Year’s Eve, when the year of heartbeats ends, and at the exact same moment the show at LACMA closes.

]]>http://www.mandiberg.com/new-work/feed/0FDIC Insuredhttp://www.mandiberg.com/fdic-insured/
http://www.mandiberg.com/fdic-insured/#respondWed, 15 Nov 2017 23:05:21 +0000http://www.mandiberg.com/?p=3027FDIC Insured
40 Rector Street, New York
September 15 – December 15, 2016
Produced with the support of Time Equities Arts-in-Buildings

FDIC Insured opened on September 15, 2016, on the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy filing. It was on view in a vacated office building near Wall Street, at 40 Rector Street, until December 15, 2016. Visitors entered through the building’s quintessentially corporate lobby, took an elevator to the 15th floor, where FDIC Insured was installed, enacting a ghostly presence of failed banks. I presented a series of programs and talks on to current economic and financial issues during the course of the exhibition, including artist talks, video screenings, and panel discussions.

Including the Dutch-language version of Print Wikipedia, Museum Meermanno and the KB, the National Library of the Netherlands, present the exhibition The Art of Reading: From William Kentridge to Wikipedia. Over twenty installations, arranged as experiential areas, give visitors the opportunity to become acquainted with numerous different aspects of reading. Examples include the Dutch version of Print Wikipedia, Like a pearl in my hand (2016) by Carina Hesper, and 2nd Hand Reading (2014) by William Kentridge.